Up First from NPR - UK Terror Plot Investigation, Trump's Fuel Efficiency Rollback, Cornell Rape Case

Episode Date: September 29, 2026

Five men arrested near a U.S.-used air base in Britain have been released on bail but remain under investigation, as police say they have not determined whether a foreign state was involved.The Trump administration is rolling back fuel efficiency standards for new cars, saying the change will lower sticker prices even as critics warn drivers could pay more over time in fuel and other costs.And a 2024 sexual assault case at Cornell University is now under criminal investigation as the school faces growing scrutiny over how it handled the allegations.Want more analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Tina Kraja, Kara Platoni, Gigi Douban, Mohamad ElBardicy and HJ Mai.It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Nia Dumas.Our director is Christopher Thomas.We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis and Patrick Murray.Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.And our Supervising Senior Producer is Vince Pearson.(0:00) Introduction(01:58) UK Terror Plot Investigation(05:43) Trump's Fuel Efficiency Rollback(09:43) Cornell Rape CaseSee pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

British police released five people who had been detained near an airbase. The matter out on bail to the surprise of the United States. Secretary of State Rubio maintains a foreign actor was involved. What is the evidence show? I'm Leila Faudil. That's Steven Ski, and this is up first from NPR News. The Trump administration is rolling back fuel efficiency standards for new cars. President Biden wanted cars to average 50 miles per gallon. President Trump says that's too expensive to achieve.

What does it mean for the price we pay to drive? Also, prosecutors are reopening the sexual assault case involving Cornell University. A former student sued the university and seven male students. Police say her statement at the time was different. And Cornell is facing questions about how it handled the case. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day. President Trump is questioning why five men,

British officials initially described as terror suspects, have now been released on bail. Today, counterterrorism officials are still investigating the masked men who were arrested in the middle of the night with suspicious vehicles near a British airbase used by U.S. bombers striking Iran, but they're also looking at less serious crimes. What's going on here? NPR's Lauren Friar is in London. Hi there, Lauren. Good morning. Okay, so British officials and the Trump administration seem to describe this incident differently. What are they saying? Well, President Trump initially said about the suspects, quote, we had them under investigation and we know everything. about them, suggesting some sort of transatlantic intelligence collaboration.

Then in the Oval Office last night, he expressed surprise when asked by reporters about the suspect's release. Over there, I'm surprised that they released them. I wouldn't have done that. Look, they've been very good. They worked with us very closely. We know everything about him. We would not have released them. Trump was also asked whether Iran is linked to these suspects. He said it might be, but he'd rather not say. Secretary of State, Marco Rubia, was also asked about this. He told Fox News it, quote, clearly involves the hands of a foreign actor but did not name a specific country.

Iran, for its part, denies any involvement. The embassy here in London calls that malicious speculation. Okay, that's what the U.S. is saying. That's what the U.S. is saying. That the suspects are British nationals ranging in age from 23 to 25. Home addresses in London, a couple hours drive from where this incident took place. The head of British counterterrorism policing, Lawrence Taylor, announcing the suspect's release on bail last night, also noted, what he called the geopolitical context. He said investigators are considering every possible angle, including that the men could be what he called proxies,

working, quote, knowingly or unknowingly, on behalf of a foreign state. Often this threat becomes visible to us as criminal activity, often at a small scale, and committed by individuals whose primary aim is not terrorism, but a quick financial gain. It can be harder to spot. So he said what looks like petty crime could actually be the work of a foreign state.

He acknowledged this is confusing. He asked people not to speculate and give investigators time to figure this out. Incidentally, this is an area where residents say there's been thefts of diesel fuel and fertilizer, which is linked to Iran because the Iran war has pushed up prices. Yesterday, British diesel actually hit a record high of $10 a gallon. Okay, so I think Lawrence Taylor there is essentially telling us, Keep an open mind. Don't assume what has happened here until Moore is known. So what is being learned about the scene of the suspected crime? So this happened near Royal Air Force Base Fairford in the

Cotswolds, a picturesque, wealthy farming area, incidentally where J.D. Vance has vacationed. The base has hosted U.S. troops for decades. During the Iran War, it's attracted lots of plane spotters, eager to catch a glimpse of these giant American B-1 bombers. It's also attracted anti-war protesters. So early Sunday, this all began. A farmer spotted suspicious vehicles driven by masked men. She said she called police, they intercepted them, arrested five suspects, then used a bomb disposal robot to probe the vehicles. Police have not announced that any explosives were found, though. The law says terror suspects can be held 14 days without charge. For lesser offenses, it's 24 hours. And it's during that time frame that these suspects were released. Oh, very interesting detail there at the end. Lauren, thanks so much. You're welcome. That's NPR's Lauren Freyer in London. The Trump administration is doing away with another Biden-era climate effort.

Yeah, it's rolling back the fuel efficiency standards for new cars. Here to talk about is NPR's Cars and Energy reporter Willa Rubin. Willa, good morning. Good morning, Steve. Okay, so what is changing? So, Steve, we're talking about what are known as the cafe standards. These are not the standards for your morning coffee. Thank goodness.

They are the corporate average fuel economy standards, but different. Yeah. So these are government regulations that tell car makers how fuel efficient their vehicles should be on average. So, you know, a car company might make electric vehicles, but they might also make big trucks, maybe some hybrids. The point of these standards is to set a target for how fuel efficient all those vehicles are taken together on average. Now, there have been CAFE standards for about 50 years, but different presidential administrations can give car makers exact goals. And the latest here is that the Trump administration is lowering the goals that the Biden administration set, which were pretty high. Okay, so how high were they and how low are they going?

Well, the standard is that over the next five years, new car fleets have to average just under 35 miles to the gallon. Under Biden, that number was just over 50. And on average, fuel efficiency across the fleet now only has to go up by up to 1% a year. That's down from about 2% under Biden. I got to tell you, 50 miles to the gallon. Alan actually sounds kind of cool, so why does the Trump administration back off of that? Well, Steve, they say they're doing this to save car buyers' money. They say that fuel efficiency technology is expensive. And in their announcement, the administration said that these new standards will trim about $1,300 off the sticker price of new cars. In statements to NPR,

automakers praise the move. They say that the new standards are more in line with market realities, meaning, you know, EV sales are still a minority of new car sales in the U.S. But critics say, just looking at the sticker price ignores some of the longer-term expenses that come with being a car owner. So I spoke with Sue Helper. She's an economist at Hays Western Reserve University. She studies the auto industry. And she says better fuel efficiency is good for drivers. She says it saves them money at the pump.

It saves them some maintenance expenses. And that it's an advantage when companies have to continue. continuously work towards this common goal. By getting rid of this regulation, you get rid of this pressure, this incentive, or this coordination among companies to work on this problem that consumers face. And right now, of course, consumers are facing high costs for gasoline. The national average for a gallon is about $4.50, according to AAA. And those aren't the only costs associated with lower fuel efficiency.

What do you mean? Well, so there's pollution. there is the resulting cost to people's health, there's the environment, more global warming, that list goes on. There's also potentially a cost to the automakers. These standards don't encourage them to continue innovating in electric vehicles in more fuel-efficient cars. And that risks them getting left behind globally because, of course, American carmakers do not sell exclusively in the U.S. That's absolutely true.

And, of course, China has been producing millions of electric vehicles that are cheap. Exactly. And just to give you a sense of how big the electric car market is getting globally, last year 30% of cars in Europe were electric. More than half of vehicles sold in China were electric, according to the International Energy Agency. Of course, there's also the risk that the standards could change again, that all this could get challenged in court. You know, there will be a new administration in about two years. For carmakers, they're also grappling with uncertainty about tariffs. You know, carmakers, they plan their fleets, their factories, their production years in advance. For the auto industry, the signals, shall we say, are a bit mixed. And Pierce Willa Rubin, thanks so much. Thank you. Let's warn you right at the start that our next story describes sexual violence. New York prosecutors are reopening a criminal investigation into an alleged sexual assault involving students at Cornell University.

A former Cornell student says she was drugged and gang raped at the school in 2024. And no criminal charges were filed at the time. Two weeks ago, she filed a lawsuit with new Alley, against Cornell and seven male students. The brutal details of the case have drawn condemnation around the world and shaken the small college community in upstate New York. NPR's Brian Mann is in Ithaca this morning near the Cornell campus. Brian, good morning. Good morning, Steve. Why would it take so long for prosecutors to reopen a case from 2024? Well, the DA here, Matthew Van Houten, says the woman in this case gave a statement two years ago to Cornell campus police where she described a drug

alcohol-fueled party at the Kai Phi fraternity house. Van Houten says, according to her statement, then she took part voluntarily. But in the civil lawsuit filed this month, she recounts a horrific ordeal where she was pressured to drink and take drugs until she was incapacitated, then violently raped by these seven men

over a period of hours. The prosecutor says after learning of those details, he now expects to present this case to a grand jury. Okay, so she's given a different description, and this gives prosecutor is more to go on is what you're saying. What are women in the Cornell community saying about all this? I'm hearing anger, Steve, that this case wasn't investigated more thoroughly at the time, and also frustration that more hasn't been done to change campus culture here.

Kat Martin graduated last year. She says she, too, was sexually assaulted at Cornell. It was normalized to experience violence. It was normalized to worry about being drugged. And I also spoke with Olympia Hall. She's a current Cornell student. She's co-president. of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Safety Club on campus. She says Cornell has tried to improve campus safety, but she says she still sometimes feel vulnerable. And she told me fraternities on campus hold a lot of sway over students' social life. That is a cultural aspect that creates a lot of power dynamics that are uncomfortable

and lead young men to potentially not think about their actions. And Steve, NPR, attempted to reach out to these young men who are named in this lawsuit for their comment without success. Brian, I saw something on social media about the men allegedly involved being told to write essays as punishment. Could that possibly be true? Well, the lawsuit says some of the men who allegedly raped the woman were allowed to write essays in order to lessen or mitigate any disciplinary action by Cornell. In a statement, Cornell says there were consequential punishments for the men involved, but the university. declined our request for an interview to clarify what that means. It's also unclear whether any of these men are still students at the university. Cornel's handling of this case, Steve, is also drawing

scrutiny because the rape allegations were only investigated back in 2024 by campus police, local police issued a statement yesterday saying they were never notified about this alleged assault. Ithaca's mayor, Robert Cantelmo, is a Cornell alum, and he issued his own statement yesterday, blasting Cornell's leadership for failing to coordinate this investigation with city police. Can Telmo is now pushing for a moratorium on student events, including Greek fraternity and sorority activities, until Cornell comes up with a new plan to keep students safe. And Pierre's Brian Mann in Ithaca, New York.

Brian, thanks so much. Thank you, Steve. And that's up first for this Tuesday, September 29th. I'm Steve Inskeep. And I'm Leila Faudil. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Tina Krai. Cara Plotony, Gigi Dubein, Mohameda Verdii, and H.J. Mai. It was produced by Ziyadh-Butch and Nia Dumas.

Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Highness and Patrick Murray. Our technical director is Carly Strange. And our supervising senior producer is Vince Pearson. Join us again tomorrow.